Automotive Tool Reviews & Buying Guides

When talking about automotive tool reviews, we include impact wrenches, socket sets, and storage. Pneumatic impact wrenches used to be the only game in town. Recently, battery advances have yielded powerful handheld cordless tools that compete with air tools. That’s a major convenience potential for automotive mechanics and vehicle Pros. Also, our automotive tool reviews get put into the hands of automotive professionals. This lets our sockets, wrenches, ratchets, and other hand tools receive a fair shakedown. Tool storage is another area that falls under this category, and we deliver thorough reviews of workbenches, cabinets, and tool chests, as well as reviews for best portable tire inflator, best car vacs, best car battery, and best car scratch remover. In the end, a professional knows that time and money go hand-in-hand. Good auto mechanics tools make all the difference.

Kobalt 27-Piece Xtreme Access Socket Set Review

Kobalt 27-Piece Xtreme Access Socket Set Review

The new trend in sockets, which Kobalt has fully embraced with its 27-pc Xtreme Access Socket Set, is the universal SAE/Metric spline drive that fits 6 & 12 pt, spline, star, square and even most rounded sockets. But Kobalt also utilized a new 4-in-1 solution that has the ratchet surrounding the socket, leaving the center open. Why is that important? With the center open , your bolt can pass right through, letting you use the same socket for both shallow and deep applications. Combined with the specialized drive system, this 27-piece socket set covers nearly all the bases for most general socket use.

Kobalt 18V Li-ion Cordless Impact Wrench

Kobalt 18V Li-ion Cordless Impact Wrench Review

For anyone who does any sort of automotive work, the impact wrench is a must-have tool. Even if you only occasionally remove a tire, there is a stark difference between using a breaker bar or tire iron and a pneumatic impact wrench. But with an impact wrench, you also have the obligatory air compressor, hose, and necessary room to make sure it all works. Not so, with Kobalt Tools’ new 18V 1/2″ Cordless Impact Wrench. Of course, the real issue is, now that they’ve severed the cord and gone to the 18V Lithium-ion battery, is the tool sufficiently powerful to truly take off lug nuts? Can it replace, for real, not just for “most purposes” the air powered impact wrench? That’s what we set out to prove or disprove. And like most experiments, we had a lot of fun, and learned more than we expected.

Milwaukee M18 Compact Impact Wrench

Milwaukee M18 Compact Impact Wrench Preview

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation expands its LITHIUM-ION system with the new M18 Cordless 3/8”and 1/2” Compact Impact Wrenches. The new additions to the M18 line set the industry standard for power, speed and run-time in the compact impact wrench category.